Marinus Willett

Marinus Willett (31 July 1740-22 August 1830) was Mayor of New York City from 1807 to 1808, succeeding and preceding DeWitt Clinton. Willett served as a colonel during the American Revolutionary War, fighting on the northern frontier and in the campaign in Canada.

Biography
Marinus Willett was born on 31 July 1740 in Jamaica, Queens, Long Island, and he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the New York militia during the French and Indian War, fighting at Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Frontenac, and he would become a leader of the Sons of Liberty in New York City during the 1760s and early 1770s. At the start of the war, he was commissioned as a captain in the 1st New York Regiment, and he fought in Canada and on the northern frontier from 1775 to 1777, fighting at the Siege of Fort Stanwix and battle of Oriskany. As an aide to Charles Scott, he fought at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778 and in the 1779 Sullivan Expedition, and in 1781 he left the Continental Army when the Continental Congress reduced the New York regiments down to one. Willett would take part in the quelling of Shays' Rebellion in 1787 and helped George Clinton in his opposition of the US Constitution. Willett constantly engaged in peace talks with the Native Americans, and he declined promotion to Brigadier-General in 1792 during the Northwest Indian War. He died in 1830 at the age of 90 after serving as Mayor of New York City from 1807 to 1808 between DeWitt Clinton's two terms.